Jessica Lee .ca

IKEA stuff

I worked on Aug. 6th so that I could take today off - waiting at home for IKEA delivery.

We found out that IKEA online purchase is very different from buying it in the store. We will never buy anything from IKEA online again!

1. When I placed the order online on July 15th, the online purchase confirmation gave me a delivery date: July 19th. So, Chris took a day off. No one showed up. We called customer service and they said it says the estimated deliver date would be 27th. But, they contract out the delivery to a trucking company so the trucking company will call us before they deliver. They don't know the delivery date. I told IKEA that I had a proof of e-mail saying that the delivery would be on the 19th. The customer rep said it must be a Web site bug and I can report it to the technical support if I want to. I emailed a complaint to customer service instead.

2. Got an e-mail reply from IKEA yesterday - they are willing to talk about compensation... I was waiting for the actual delivery before I'd talk to them.

3. The delivery guy showed up in the afternoon. He said he's not insured to place IKEA's items in basement for me. So, he had to leave everthing near front door. NOTE: If we bought things in the store with the delivery option, those guys would be able to place things in basement for us.

Cupboard doors

The doors of the under-sink cupboard were painted today.

We planed to paint it white (matching the bathroom door) - just like in the main floor bathroom and the other bathrooms in the house. However, this colour (matching the shelf unit beside the sink) maybe makes the sink itself stands out more. Hmm... maybe we should just keep it this way.

Carpet is installed!

Yeah!

The carpet totally matches the wall colour!

Wrapping up...

The mirror in the basement bathroom is installed. The shower door is installed but it's not the pebbled glass that we ordered.

Side project:
Philippe, Sonia and Amelie helped me to get the king size headboard back home from Peer One Import tonight! Philippe even helped Chris move the headboard upstairs. That was not easy! THANKS guys! I love you!

Bathroom towel bar and ring are hung

Slowly... it's coming together. Towel bar and ring were installed. Toilet paper hanger is installed. Bathrobe hook will be installed later near the shower.

This design goes well with the sink, don't you think?

Pretty floor

The flooring guy showed up at 7:30 am. They finished installing around 11:30 am. The floor's colour looks even redder against the wall.

CoCo's sink is working!

They worked more on the floor level and installed shower and sink faucets. I LOVE this sink!!! I'm sure CoCo will love it too! With the heat lamp in the bathroom, he'll be very comfortable during grooming.

Floor is here but not installed yet

They levelled the corner (of entertainment area) and the floor is delivered here - just not installed yet.

Fresh tiles!

Tiles are in the basement bathroom! It compliments the wall colour. Bathroom's vanity light is also installed.

Dimmer switches and etc.

Dimmer switches are in! The alcove's dimmer switch is especially cool - Chris thinks it's like a transporter light effects. Bathroom's heat lamp + fan is working now too.

A lot of painting and a lot of noise!!!

FIRE truck was at my house... yes, that's right.

Painters were here today and did a lot of work in the basement. The fumes set off the fire alarm. The security company called me but since I didn't answer the call from a 1-800 number during a meeting... they notified the fire department. The project manager called me. Since I recognized his number, I picked up the phone during the meeting. He said the CO alarm is going off and asked how to turn it off. I told him the CO alarm is just battery operated alarm and he can just unplug it. Since he wasn't on site, he didn't know it wasn't the CO alarm. It was the monitored smoke alarm. The second time the same 1-800 number showed up, I answered. The security company told me it's the fire alarm and the fire truck is on its way. I told them to cancel but the operator said it could not be cancelled. So, I called the project manager to let them know the fire truck is on the way to visit them...

After 2 minutes or so, I got another call from the project manager asking me to call home and tell the fireman the code to turn off the house alarm. I called home and talked to a guy and he turned off the alarm.

Another 2 minutes later, I got a call from the fire chief... gave me a lecture... asked me to temporarily disable the fire alarm... otherwise, they will bill me $500 for a false alarm. But, we can't - the system doesn't allow us to disable fire alarm. The alarm company asked me to call them daily in the morning and they can set to ignore alarm for max. 8 hours daily. That's what I'll have to do - call them every morning.

More painting...

We can certainly smell the amount of work they've done today!

Painting started!

They started to paint! They painted over the mud at the front entrance wall. They stained all the trim downstairs.

It was good that it was a warm day and we left the window open for CoCo this morning. The whole house stinks! We've got all the windows open now.

Basement DEV: stairs and windows trim

They've done a lot of work today! The bannister is installed. Window trim is in place too!

More work done in the basement

More work was done. But, we were told today that we have to find a different light fixture for the basement bathroom. It's too big.

Basement bathroom's pipe is covered!

Basement dev: clean up day

All the mudding and sanding is done. They cleaned up the space and are getting it ready to paint and install the flooring. It's really starting to look like a proper room.

Basement dev: ceiling textured

They textured the ceiling today!

More mud and tape

They found the missing pot light! They even fixed the wall by the staircase at front door!

Basement Development: Drywall is up!

They did a lot of work today. Drywall and sound-deadening resilient bar are installed. One pot light is covered though...

Basement dev: dry wall boards are here

Chris has a terrible cold today so he stayed at home today. Around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, someone was at the door, delivering wallboard! None of the contractors were here... but Chris got to open the door for the delivery guys.

Basement dev: pot lights roughed in place

They did a lot of electrical work today. All except one pot light is roughed in place.

More basement development work done today!

They boxed the metal columns to make them look nicer. It seems they put up some thin wooden sheets to even out the surface of the wall. You can still see the blue metal column in the picture. They also assembled the shower kit and poured concrete over the new sewer connection. There's a footprint on the concrete.

Shower stall kit is here!

Chris talked to the project manager and found out yesterday's plumbing work was not done by Tom and Jerry - they never showed up. Another plumber was hired for the job.

Today, the bottom of the shower is in place.

Tom and Jerry were here! Really! No, really!

Tom and Jerry were here today working on the plumbing.

Jan. 22 - framing of basement bathroom is done

The framing of the bathroom in the basement is finally done. We think that's the only thing they did today.

Day 9 of basement development

Yesterday, we couldn't tell what they were working on, or if they did anything at all. We only knew they brought more wood in.

Today, they did more work on re-route air ducks and they installed a new humidifier.

Day 7 of basement development

They framed the air duck in the back of the "gym area."

Day 6 of basement development (Jan. 15, 2007)

They estimate it's 35% completed, so we got the invoice today. Framing is nearly done. They still have to do the back wall of bathroom and that's it. They spent most of the day re-routing the air ducks, so the ceiling will have a streamline look

Day 5 of basement development

No one is working on the basement today. Not much sawdust smell, though!

Day 4 of basement development

We got home around 6:30 PM. There were some saw dust near the entrance. I had to vacuum it up before I let CoCo come downstairs. However, we cannot tell what was worked on. We can't see any changes.

Day 3 of basement development

Bathroom wall frame is completed, sub-flooring and gussets for putting the ducts through the joists are starting to go into place.

Day 2 of basement development

Last night, it was very smelly - like saw dust. We don't want CoCo to have to smell that all day - it's not good for him. So, we stopped by Home Depot, on the way home, to get some vent filters and put them in all vents as soon as we got home. Hope it will help.

Most of the subfloor is there, and bathroom floor's concrete is broken to expose the pipe. Some of the bathroom wall frame is up, too

Day 1 of basement development (Jan.9, 2007)

We got home around 7 PM. CoCo seemed to be awake the whole day... of course, there must have been lots of strange sounds and smells. It's the first day of our basement development. We smell saw dust and maybe paint? Not sure... but it's giving me a headache... HOPE we'll be able to sleep tonight. The security bars have been removed and so was the fence gate. They must have brought the wood in through the window.

Day 0 of basement development (Jan.8, 2007)

We spent the whole evening moving the rest of our stuff out of basement. We have not seen the basement so empty since... we moved in.